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World Wide Web Consortium Publishes XForms 1.0 as a W3C Candidate Recommendation

November 12, 2002

W3C`s Next-generation Forms Technology Ready for Implementors

After Nearly 10 Years, It`s Time to Upgrade Forms on the Web

When HTML Forms were introduced to the Web in 1993, they provided a means to gather information and perform transactions. The structure of forms served the needs of many users at that time, as well as the devices used to access the Web.

Now, nearly 10 years later, the original HTML Form design is showing its limitations. Users now wish to access the Web through cell phones, handheld devices, and assistive technologies such as screen readers. Forms Authors are looking to both minimize scripting and maximize reuse of form components, as well as cleanly separate the purpose, presentation and results of a form. And of course, companies which have made the move to XML are looking for ways to bring forms along with the rest of the enterprise.

"W3C`s XForms allow authors to use their choice of markup language - XHTML, SVG, XML - with minimal scripting and maximum usability," explained Steven Pemberton, co-chair of the W3C XForms Working Group. "The XForms Working Group has provided a model that makes it easy for implementors to develop and reuse form components, delivering functionality to users and devices previously not possible."

XForms Cleanly Separates Purpose, Presentation, and Results

In contrast to HTML Forms, with functional and presentation markup intertwined, XForms lets forms authors distinguish the descriptions of the purpose of the form; the presentation of the form, and how the results (the instance data) are written in XML.

By splitting traditional HTML forms into three parts-XForms model, instance data, and the XForms user interface -it cleanly separates presentation from content. This separation brings new advantages:

Reuse: XForms modules can be reused independent of the information they collect

Device Independence: as the User Interface controls are abstract - that is, their generic features are the only thing indicated - they can easily be re-presented on different devices with different capabilities

Accessibility: separation of presentation from content leaves information more readily available for users of assistive technologies; in addition, the User interface controls encapsulate all relevant metadata such as labels, thereby enhancing accessibility of the application when using different modalities.

Practically speaking, XForms technologies make it possible to use forms from a PDA, a cell phone, screen reader or conventional desktop machine - without loss of functionality for the end user.

XForms delivers the power of XML to online forms

XML is at the core of the XForms model, and delivers key advantages to the XForms technology:

Data received from an XForm is already strongly typed, well-formed, easy to validate, and process - in other words, it`s XML. This also speeds up form filling since it reduces the need for round trips to the server for validation.

XML Schemas may be reused and updated by XForms, which allows one form to remain useful and functional even if there are changes in the Schema

Using XML 1.0 for the description of results - called `instance data` - ensures that the submitted data may be easily internationalized.

Moreover, XForms, while initially designed to be integrated into XHTML, may be adopted by any suitable markup language, such as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). By defining XML-based declarative event handlers that cover common use cases, the majority of XForms documents can be statically analyzed, reducing the need for imperative scripts for event handlers.

XForms Working Group Includes Industry Leaders, Seeks Implementations

In the competitive field of forms technology, it`s almost unheard of to have so many leading participants working together on the development of a standardized technology to be used by all. The W3C XForms Working Group serves as the place where these technology and industry leaders meet to produce results that have immediate use on the Web today. The XForms Working Group includes: Adobe; AOL/Netscape; Cardiff; Computer Associates; CWI; Electricité de France R&D; Helsinki University of Technology; IBM; Novell; NTT DoCoMo, Inc.; Openwave; Oracle; PureEdge Solutions; SAP/Mozquito Technologies; Sony/Ericsson; and Xerox. Many companies have announced support for XForms in current and future software.

The XForms Working Group encourages developers to work with the new specification, and to send feedback about implementations to the XForms Working Group mailing list.

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)